Source Bonding

Source bonding can be very strong for some sounds and weak for others. Over time, source bonding might become stronger, it might get weaker, or even break down completely.

The context in which a sound appears, or how it is transformed, will influence the source bonding effect.

Sounds might be closely bonded to their source in one context, but completely un-bonded in another context.

Sounds taken far out of their original context can even be bonded to a completely different object from the one that created them.

Role of the Listener

It is important to remember that the sounds that you edit and compile, might be heard differently by everyone who listens to them.

The listener builds up an interpretation of the piece based upon what they hear. They don’t know where the sounds originally came from or what transformations you have made (unless you tell them).

Because of this we are able to be creative with the sounds that we use. We might take a sound from one context, and transform it to make it sound like something else. This is the reason why sounds can be bonded to imagined sources – rather than those that actually created them.

We can also use this same principle to link sounds from very different places into a ‘natural sounding’ soundscape.

Listen to this example.

The sounds come from very different sources, but have been combined together in such a way that they sound like they belong together. Their original sources have been abandoned. It is a clip from C’est Whizz! by Florian Sulpice.